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What Are We Talking About? The Semantics and Politics of Social Kinds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Sally Haslanger
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Abstract

Theorists analyzing the concepts of race and gender disagree over whether the terms refer to natural kinds, social kinds, or nothing at all. The question arises: what do we mean by the terms? It is usually assumed that ordinary intuitions of native speakers are definitive. However, I argue that contemporary semantic externalism can usefully combine with insights from Foucauldian genealogy to challenge mainstream methods of analysis and lend credibility to social constructionist projects.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 20 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Analytic Feminism , Fall 2005 , pp. 10 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Hypatia, Inc.

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